Andy Lee - Don't Write Him Off Just Yet

Andy Lee made his ring comeback after 7 months out, at the 02 Arena on March 21st, against the tough German Alex Sipos.
Despite winning the 10 round contest by 99-91, according to referee Emile Tiedt, Lee got caught far too much and was rocked by a few of the German's shots.
Worryingly, the cut that had kept Lee out of action for the last few months, was opened again in the first round of the fight.

It was obvious from watching the bout that the Limerick middleweight has defensive flaws, and needs to improve his inside fighting skills. He also needs to show more variety instead of relying too much on the jab, right hook combination, which is effective but a little too predictable.

On the plus side, Lee's superior power was still as potent as ever, as was evident when he knocked down Sipos with a short left hook at the end of the 6th round.
All in all this was an average performance against a decent opponent, not bad for his first fight back but not great either.

Those who doubt Lee's championship potential may be expecting too much, too soon. At the age of 24, Lee has time to iron out these flaws in his fight game. Identifying his weaknesses is the first step to correcting them and I am sure a boxer with as much raw talent and potential as Lee, is more than capable of learning from his mistakes and coming back stronger.
If a fighter does not make mistakes, he cannot learn from them, just look at Bernard Dunne who was ko'd within a round not so long ago, only to fight his way back to winning the WBA super bantamweight title.

Time will tell whether Andy Lee can live up to his potential and his trainer Manny Steward's belief in him, but I wouldn't be writing him off on the basis of a couple of poor performances.